Dispensers which are adapted to deliver disinfecting or aesthetic ingredients to a toilet tank to condition water in the toilet tank and bowl are known.
The following commonly-owned references will serve as background art for dosing dispensers and cakes of active ingredients used in combination therewith, and are incorporated herein by reference:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,171,546, Dirksing, issued Oct. 23, 1979;
U.S. Pat. No. 4,208,747, Dirksing, issued June 24, 1980;
U.S. Pat. No. 4,186,856, Dirksing, issued Feb. 5, 1980;
U S. Pat. No. 4,216,027, Wages, issued Aug. 5, 1980;
U.S. Pat. No. 4,200,606, Kitko, issued Apr. 29, 1980;
U.S. Pat. No. 4,248,827, Kitko, issued Feb. 3, 1981;
U.S. Pat. No. 4,253,951, McCune, issued Mar. 3, 1981;
U.S. Pat. No. 4,246,129, Kacher, issued Jan. 20, 1981;
U.S. Pat. No. 4,251,012, Williams, issued Feb. 17, 1981;
U.S. Pat. No. 4,247,070, Dirksing, issued Jan. 27, 1981;
U.S. Pat. No. 4,302,350, Callicott, issued Nov. 24, 1981;
U.S. Pat. No. 4,281,421, Nyquist et al, issued Aug. 4, 1981;
U.S. Pat. No. 4,283,300, Kurtz, issued Aug. 11, 1981; and
European Pat. Appln. 0,005,286, Nyquist, published Nov. 14, 1979.
Hypochlorite cakes of various shapes for dosing dispensers are disclosed in European Pat. Application, Ser. No. 0,005,286, Nyquist, published Nov. 14, 1979; but Nyquist does not teach that cake "shape" is a means for controlling the concentration of hypochlorite solution dispensed with each flush cycle within the context of a specified dispenser.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,208,747, Dirksing, issued June 24, 1980, discloses highly effective toilet tank dispensers which receive a dose volume of water from a toilet tank in which such a dispenser is placed every time the toilet is flushed. This patent teaches that cleaning and disinfecting cakes can be used in such dispensers, but fails to address the specific problems posed by certain types of cakes, particularly when hypochlorite cakes are placed inside the reservoir of such a toilet tank dispenser. FIGS. 9-14 and 18 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,208,747, Dirksing, disclose "top-feed" dispensers in which hypochlorite cakes are completely immersed in the dosing liquid in the reservoir and in which the solution is drawn from above of the cake. Such cake/dispenser combinations do not deliver a consistent amount of available chlorine over the life of the cake. Dirksing also discloses a dosing dispenser of the "bottom-feed" type illustrated by FIGS. 1-8 and 15-17. Symmetrical rectangular-shaped cakes are used therein. In such dispensers the bleach cake is only partially immersed in dosing liquid in the reservoir.
The present invention includes a "bottom-feed" dosing dispenser.
It has been discovered that a problem with a symmetrical rectangular-shaped bleach cake prism in a bottom-feed dosing dispenser is that it delivers significantly nonuniform concentrations of hypochlorite solutions over the life of the cake. Specifically, more concentrated hypochlorite solutions are dispensed during the first few days of usage which results in a waste of the hypochlorite chemical.
It is an object of the present invention to reduce hypochlorite chemical waste in bottom-feed hypochlorite dispensers.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a dosing dispenser containing a new water-soluble calcium hypochlorite cake which dissolves and gravity feeds into the dispenser reservoir water to provide a more uniform concentration of hypochlorite solution for each dispensing cycle.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a dosing dispenser containing a water-soluble hypochlorite cake which saves chemicals and thereby reduces cost.
These and other objects of the present invention will become apparent in the light of the following disclosure.